


Just your Ordinary Secretary

by Linorien



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Moneypenny March, a day in the life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-08 02:25:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10375758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linorien/pseuds/Linorien
Summary: A day in the life of Eve Moneypenny





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Castillon02](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castillon02/gifts).



> Written during a three hour flight based on a prompt from Cas.

0630 Wake up

 

The sharp trumpet and drums blaring from her phone woke Eve from her far too short sleep. Despite the warmth of her bed, she flicked on her morning playlist and rolled out of bed, staggering to the shower. At least she knew the warm water pounding on her back would wake her up.

 

0645 Breakfast

 

She flicked on the kettle and made herself an omelette with some leftover chicken from dinner. It wasn't much, but it would keep her going for most of the morning. As she ate, she checked the weather and decided on soup for lunch.

 

0710 Arrive at MI6

 

M would not be here for another twenty minutes, but that time was best spent settling in for the day. Reviewing the schedule, seeing what came in from Q branch while she was sleeping, and managing requests for M. She even put on some soft jazz.

 

0730 M arrives

 

"Good Morning, sir."

"Morning Moneypenny. Is Tanner here yet?"

"Only beat you by a minute this morning."

"Please let him know I'll be ready for him in five minutes."

"Of course, sir."

 

0810 Check in with Q

 

A chat message appears on her screen.  _ Morning Eve. _

_ Hi Q. Did you get any sleep? _

_ Enough. Any questions about the reports? _

_ None. Your branch is as organised as always. I'm making soup for lunch if you care to join. _

_ I should have time to spare. Noon? _

_ See you then. _

 

0900 M branch meeting

 

Carefully scheduled to allow for the morning catch up to be done, M, Tanner, and Moneypenny meet in M's office to update schedules and share a cup of tea. Sometimes Tanner has baked good his wife made, but not this morning. M also filled them in on upcoming missions and Tanner gave updates on the progress of trainees. Moneypenny caught them up on the latest office gossip and informed them of any new betting pools.

 

1000 Weekly Whitehall meetings

 

This was meeting hour and today's was Whitehall. They wanted updates on ongoing missions, updates on terrorists, updates on security for diplomatic trips, updates on everything. Although she missed the previous M, Mallory had a knack for political manoeuvring.

Undoubtably a result of his background, under his leadership MI6 had a larger budget and far fewer politicians questioning the usefulness of what they do. Every week he seemed to convince the suits that they had more intel than they did and yet they still needed more resources.

The truly fun meetings were the ones Q was required to attend. She knew he professed to hating them, but he too was a master wordsmith. Subtle threats and warnings of impending doom frightened the politicians and Q walked out with increased resources and a wicked grin on his face.

For her part, Moneypenny kept a close watch on everyone's reactions and made note of potential pressure points. If they had an especially rough week, Q gave her chemicals to slip into a drink of her choice. Her favourite was the one that turned hair grey in two days. She had a few favourites to use that one on.

 

1130 Organisation

 

They actually finished the round of meetings at Whitehall early today. She was able to start her afternoon work a little early. Most mission reports were now submitted digitally and thus sorted automatically, but some still did them by hand. Pulling them out of the drawer, she started typing.

 

1200 Lunch

 

Q was waiting for her in the kitchen when she arrived. He looked up from his laptop with a smile. "How was your morning, Eve?"

"No desire to strangle anyone at the meetings," she replied. "Is the fruit yours?"

"Yeah. I made a quick stop at the market this morning. They don't really go with soup, but they taste great. Freshly picked this morning I was told."

Eve took a bit of a strawberry and had to agree. So they ate some fruit, swapped morning gossip, and then shared chicken soup with star shaped noodles.

They would have stayed a little longer except Q got a notification. He snapped the lid on his bowl, snapped his computer shut, and rushed towards the stairs. Eve called after him, asking about the fruit, but he told her to share the rest.

 

1240 Reports

 

Now with a bowl of fruit, she resumed going through the mission reports. At one point Tanner joined her while they laughed at the wild stories some agents made up and took notes of what each agent excelled at during their mission. Some things still needed a human eye to pick up on.

 

1336 Brief interruption

 

Agent 003 was early for his meeting with M. Moneypenny was glad to pause her own work to chat with the agent. He regaled her with a few bars from the latest jazz album he bought and had been listening to all week.

He couldn't sing well, but he knew it made her laugh when he tried. Especially when he mimed the trumpet parts. All too soon he was summoned through the quilted door.

 

1450 Tea break

 

It was quick, but once a day all the secretaries convened in the third floor kitchen to swap gossip on their charges. Security clearance levels were tiptoed around, dropping inconsequential details in their own brand of code. It helped all of them know who to avoid for the rest of the day and who could be rewarded with sweets tomorrow.

Evidently everyone was still in a pleasant mood today. Cathrine reported that one of her agents had arrived home late last night and was planning on sleeping all day today.

 

1400 Target practice

 

"Hello Eve," R greeted her when she arrived on the shooting range.

"What brings you here, R?"

"I have some new weapons for you to try." The ladies grinned at each other as R held up a bin of high heeled shoes.

"I can't wait!" They both tossed their present shoes off to the side and picked a new pair. R demonstrated how one pair had poison darts in the heel if you tapped twice to open the compartment. Then it just took one firm stomp on a foot to release.

Another pair had blades in the toe, and still another had an entire gun hidden in plain sight.

It was terrific until Q used the intercoms to let R know that 009 had landed and she would be needed on comms in a few minutes. Eve spent a little longer practicing with her preferred gun and then she too returned to work.

 

1500 Reports

 

The next few hours would be spent staring at the screen and filling out paperwork. She could only hope for an agent or a phone call to break up the monotony, but it was unlikely. At this time of day, everyone tended to be occupied with their own work.

One earphone in, Moneypenny pulled up a playlist of the latest pop hits and got to work. She tried not to sing aloud.

 

1740 Q branch visit

 

The majority of her work was done for the day. She deserved a break. Q was busy, but as soon as she entered, he let her know that he ordered dinner.

She acknowledged and walked over to the minion who was designing the shoes she had tested earlier. Together they looked at the designs so far and discussed what worked and what didn't. Moneypenny was always impressed by the ingenuity of this branch. It was a never ceasing wonder.

 

1815 Meeting with M

 

Nearing the end of the day, it was time to meet with M once more. Schedules were updated, mission updates were given, a drink was shared. They also discussed where Tanner should take them for the monthly dinner.

Q said he didn't have an opinion, Eve was generally up for anything, but Tanner wanted to try somewhere new. After some google searching, they left it to Tanner to decide between two newer places that were opening in Soho and in Marylebone.

 

1900 Dinner

 

As soon as the lift doors opened, Eve could smell the Thai food. It seemed most of the remaining minions had already ate. She was directed towards Q's office.

"Shut the door behind you," he instructed when she walked in. "The vote was showtunes tonight and I told them we were waiting for you." He hit play on the remote and the opening number to Little Shop of Horrors began to the muffled sound of cheers.

"All missions going smoothly?"

"Yeah. There's not many that need my guidance so I've enjoyed some time to work on programming some pet projects and catch up on what everyone is working on."

"R said you didn't leave till almost two last night. Mission?"

Q laughed lightly. "No. I just lost track of time while tightening up the firewalls. You know how it goes."

Eve shook her head. "Darling, you need more sleep. Your definition of enough is wrong. How many times have I told you to at least believe the science of you don't believe me?"

"Enough times that I lost count. Tonight should be an earlier night though."

Eve raised her brows, not believing him.

"No, honestly. I'm sending off three different agents tomorrow. Everything will be ready on time, but I need to be well rested to deal with them."

 

1945 Leave

 

M had left while she was at dinner so she took off as soon as she finished dinner with Q. It looked like she might have time to stop at Tesco on her way home.

 

2100 Personal time

 

There were a few friends she had outside of work. She used this time to email a few of them and catch up on one tv show before sleep beckoned. It may be early, but she knew her alarm would seem less painful if she didn't hit next episode.


End file.
